Theophane the Monk was an artmonk
Next week I’m heading to the Vedanta Society’s Olema retreat center in Marin County. One thing I’m definitely bringing is Theophane the Monk‘s Tales of a Magic Monastery. Here’s one of his tales: There’s a monk there who wears a red robe. I was wondering why, but it was my little son who dared to ...
Jesus Lama
…the encounter between Catholicism and Buddhism cannot take place at the level of the Magisterium, it can only take place at the level of two contemplatives talking together in private. —Harold Talbott, paraphrasing Dom Aelred Graham, in “Thomas Merton in the Himalayas, An Interview with Harold Talbott” from Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Summer, 1992. If the ...
“The monastery is neither a museum nor an asylum…
“The monastery is neither a museum nor an asylum. The monk remains in the world from which the monk has fled, and the monk remains a potent, though hidden, force in that world. Beyond all the works which may accidentally attach themselves to the vocation, the monk acts on the world simply by being a ...
Chesterton’s St. Francis of Assisi
“What St. Benedict had stored St. Francis scattered.” from English writer G K Chesterton’s “Saint Francis of Assisi” via Grateful to the Dead
Female Artmonks vs. Artnuns
My monastic community, the Art Monastery in Labro, Italy is open to people of all religious beliefs, races, ethnicities, ages, genders, sexes, creeds, sexual orientations, financial situations and contemplative experience levels. We’re men and women, and we call ourselves “artmonks.” Occasionally, we wonder if that’s what we should really call ourselves, and the conversation always ...
Getting the questions right
Examples of the secular world learning from the world’s ancient contemplative and spiritual traditions abound. Neuroscientists, psychologists, doctors, cognitive scientists and cosmologists are learning from inner technologies of meditation and contemplative practice. But what of the outer, visible, measurable technologies of those traditions? How are we learning from those technologies that fit into what is ...
